I forgot how awful it is to sand drywall. Drywall dust rained directly down on my head while working on the ceiling, and sanding the walls further saturated the air with a dust that sticks to sweat and forms a substance just short of thick glue.

The air conditioning was on, but with the basement windows open and a fan in the window to encourage some of the dust to move outside, the basement was getting uncomfortable. It was about 30°C outside and the humidity was high, so things got a bit sticky.

I didn’t even notice how much dust had settled on my glasses until I stopped and went outside, and found I had trouble focusing on the house and trees across the road. My glasses were covered in a surprisingly thick layer of white dust. The caked-on dust on my head and face was next level, and even a shower didn’t entirely rid me of this sticky, yet surprisingly dry, substance. It’s essentially like talcum powder, but somehow more insidious.

Next comes one of the hardest tasks of all – choosing two paints colours. Hopefully, that painful exercise is going to wrap up tonight so I can buy the paint and get it on the walls tomorrow. While the white primer is a nice step up from patchy drywall, a solid colour will bring the entire renovation alive in a bold way.

Keep it clean

I’m a pretty neat and tidy painter, but not having a finished floor to worry about is a luxury. It’s amazing how much easier it is to do a job in the correct order, and not have to worry about where paint drips fall. Having said that, only three or four drips of primer hit the ground yesterday. I hope I didn’t use up my luck on the white primer, as I still have to cut two wall colours into the white ceiling.